It is recently learnt from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) that in the first half of this year, the received patent applications and grants both increased in China. Received applications for three patents were 857,000 pieces, up 26.8% and thereamong applications for invention patents were 258,000 items, increasing by 18.3%, applications for utility model patents were 316,000 pieces, up 29.0%, and applications for design patents were 283,000 items, up 32.9%; three granted patents were 530,000 pieces, rising by 19.1% and thereinto granted invention patents were 107,000 items, growing by 28.9%, utility model patent grants were 235,000 pieces, up 26.3% and design patent grants were 188,000 pieces, up 6.8%.

Among the applications for invention patents received from this January to June, domestic applications were 201,000 pieces, accounting for 77.9% of the gross of invention patent applications and foreign applications were 57,000 pieces, taking up 22.1% of the total amount. Of the domestic invention patent applications, service inventions were 163,000 pieces, accounting for 81.1% and non-service inventions were 38,000 items, taking up 18.9%.

In the invention patents granted during the period from this January to June, domestic granted patents were 70,000 pieces, accounting for 65.4% of the gross, and foreign granted patents were 37,000 pieces, taking up 34.6%. In domestic invention patent grants, service invention patents were 60,000 pieces, accounting for 85.7% and non-service invention patent grants were 10,000 pieces, taking up 14.3%.

According to Feng Xiaoqing, Professor from China University of Political Science and Law, the increase of received patent applications and grants was closely related to China’s implementation of national IPR strategy, leading to the raise of IPR awareness of businesses. Meanwhile, national IPR policies played more and more obvious guiding role and helped to lift patent applications. Besides, in the cut-throat market competition, the role of intangible assets inclusive of patents in raising enterprises’ core competitiveness became more and more obvious, too.

（Source: IPR in China）